Domestic Chaos
Art Statement 2001
My latest paintings are about spirituality and the mess in my bedroom. I don’t know why.
One day, I woke up, looked around, and realized that I just couldn’t take it anymore. My life consisted of an endless repetition of laundry, cooking, soccer, little league, cub scouts, homework help, play dates, PTA, school board meetings--- all this stuff I “had” to do. But no matter how much I did, it was still not enough. The house was always filthy, the kids were always wanting, there was always some meeting to go to, and nothing was happening in the studio. All this activity was so urgent, so important---yet so meaningless and draining. And so I just stopped. Yes--just stopped.
Some people think we have come a long way with feminism but really we are losing ground. I think both men and women are prisoners of this fragmented hyperactive lifestyle we have bought into, where we freak out over a wasted ten minutes. Computers make our lives easier by letting us do more, better and faster-- so we all have to do more, better and faster. There is so much available, we think we have to do it all and be it all. Yet what is it we are avoiding by all this preoccupation with stuff?
And so I went back into the studio to do the work that really interested me. And what came out is what you see.
PS. I’m still spending a lot of time doing dishes and laundry, but not very well, and it is still not enough. Maybe I can make bad housekeeping into an art form.